Getting impaled on a menorah by a murderous Santa Claus played be an ex-member of World Championship Wrestling who may or may not be the antichrist isn't the sort of thing many audiences can sympathise with. Those long, trying journeys cross-country to spend time with family members over Christmas - and all the ensuing annoyance, drama and insanity that ensues is the stuff of wry observational comedy, though, a thing that everyone has to just knuckle down and do every December. That's the starting point of Dead End, an effective little cult horror from 2003. At least, it starts off in that sort of grounded situation. Frank Harrington (Ray Wise of Twin Peaks) is the one driving his nuclear family through the dark, icy roads of midwestern America for Christmas dinner at his mother-in-law's, when a series of unfortunate events lead to them picking up an insane hitch-hiker, holing up with her in a cabin in the woods, before all sorts of supernatural satanic shenanigans start up. It's not exactly high cinema, and there's more than a few scenes where the low budget's clearly straining beneath the pressure of what's being asked of it, but Wise especially manages to sell a pretty zany premise that's almost like a twisty-turny early Twilight Zone episode. Albeit with more evil babies, masturbation and violent car crashes.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
